Next time I see Bowerbirds, I'm going to ask vocalist/accordion player Beth Tacular if I can call her "Spec."
That means I have between now and Feb. 2 -- when the folksy North Carolinians play UCSD's Loft in La Jolla -- to come up with a follow-up to my spectacularly bad pun, a pun that countless others have no doubt made (her cringe).
Much has been said about Bowerbirds' 2009 release Upper Air, including that it was one of the best albums of 2009 Their 2007 release, Hymns for a Dark Horse, has been similarly praised. NPR's Michael Katzif, whose Tiny Desk Concert series has captured a who's who of up-and-coming indie artists, recently said that Bowerbirds' "handcrafted songs creak and swell like wooden floorboards in an old house."
That about sums it up. Singer/guitarist Phil Moore, multi-instrumentalist Beth Tacular, keyboardist/drummer Dan "Yan" Westerlund and mandolinist Will Hackney bring a carefully crafted-yet-careworn feel to the indie folk scene, and they're the perfect medium between the freaky and frank extremes of folk that seem to dominate today's acoustic indie scene.
Called "one of the year's high-water marks for the acoustically inclined" by the Onion's AV Club, Upper Air was written after the new band spent several months on the road, away from nature -- a theme that dominated their first album. I caught them at the Casbah back in August 2009, and they lived up to their promise. Dead Oceans Records -- musical home to the Bowerbirds and one of my favorite labels -- sure knows how to pick 'em.
You, too, can make the right choice and go see Bowerbirds in La Jolla on Feb. 2. Tickets are $10 for students, $12 for the less fortunate. Get 'em here.
